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Don’t back divisive Modi — Gandhi’s desperate TV plea

Robin Pagnamenta

April 16 2014, 1:01am, The Times

Ms Gandhi's three-minute television appeal was screened at prime time on Hindi language channelsAP:Associated Press

Sonia Gandhi, the President of India’s ruling Congress party, has issued an unprecedented personal warning to the country’s voters not to back Narendra Modi’s campaign for election, claiming that his Hindu nationalist party is “divisive and autocratic”. She said his election would lead to India’s “ruination”.

The unusual three-minute television appeal, screened at prime time on Hindi language channels, was aired just as an opinion poll suggested for the first time that an existing alliance of parties led by Mr Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) might win an outright majority in national elections.

In an urgent attempt to stave off what looks like an imminent Modi victory, Ms Gandhi, the 67-year-old Italian-born widow of Rajiv Gandhi, the former prime minister, dispensed with the usual political…